Revive Dead Leads with One Simple Marketing Strategy

How many prospects sit in your CRM for years, without ever showing a hint of interest in your marketing efforts? Do you ever wonder if you could be doing more to motivate them to convert?

What if we told you we had a secret weapon that could help you increase engagement in your email marketing by 40%?

That’s what happened for one of our clients, a consulting firm for dental practices, after implementing the strategy we’re about to share with you. They ran the campaign outlined below and saw a whopping $500K increase in sales.

Could this happen to you? Of course. And honestly, the strategy is so simple and so easy to execute that it would be stupid not to try it—especially since what you’re doing right now clearly isn’t working.

So what are we talking about?

An email campaign: just three emails, specifically designed to revive cold leads and help you determine what buying stage prospects are in. When we implemented this campaign with the consulting firm, we were shocked by the results: within minutes, emails starting pouring in from prospective clients. Some wanted to learn more, and some were actually ready to hire the firm on the spot.

To be clear: this is not meant to be a mass marketing campaign, where you download an email list and just start bombarding people. Using this methodology on a purchased email list is a sure fire way damage your brand. This campaign is for those email addresses you’ve personally curated—people who have expressed interest in you, at some point in time, or have somehow opted in to your mailing list.

Let’s start by reviewing the emails we put together for the dental practice consulting firm, and then we’ll talk about why they work.

The Campaign

Email #1

Subject: Realize $100K in tax savings this year

Hi Firstname,

Imagine being able to realize over $100,000 in tax savings for your practice this year, while also expanding your patient base by over 15%. I’ve seen it done, and you could do it, too: by optimizing your tax liabilities and developing a strategic plan to grow your practice.

This is one of dozens of success stories I’ve seen play out over the years.

I would love to be here for you as a resource. Feel free to hit Reply and tell me what your biggest challenges are right now.

Regards,

Sales RepTitleCompany

Email #2

Subject: The value of benchmarking your dental practice

Hi Firstname,

Are you benchmarking your practice right now?

Benchmarking is critical to measuring the productivity and profitability of your dental practice, making adjustments to improve performance, and ensuring customer satisfaction.

I wanted to show you our Value Benchmarking Cheat Sheet for Dental Practices. This is a quick guide to analyzing statistics related to patient recall, fee schedules, and dentist/hygienist productivity, with the goal of increasing your practice’s profitability.

Let me know what you think.

Regards,

Sales RepTitleCompany

Email #3

Subject: Thought you might like this

Hi Firstname,

I found this great article discussing the costs of doing your own books: greatwebsite.com/greatarticle.

Just thought you might find it interesting!

Regards,

Sales RepTitleCompany

Breaking Down The Campaign

Each email in this short series is designed to hit a different stage of the buyer’s journey.

Email #1: The Case Study Email

This email targets extremely late stage prospects—those who are close to making an investment decision. Most campaigns work the opposite way, starting with early stage prospects and working forward from there, but that’s a mistake that could cost you weeks of wasted time.

Our approach identifies the hottest leads first and offers them what they need: assurance, through social justification, that an investment in this area is the right thing to do. The goal of this email is to offer a powerful real life success story that will help prospects make that final leap into buying.

If a prospect doesn’t click the link in the first email within 7-14 days, the second email will trigger.

Email #2: The Free Resource Email

This email targets prospects who are still in research mode. They’re not ready to buy yet, but they have identified their pain points and are aware that they might need help in the future. This is a golden opportunity for businesses to get a foot in the door by gently coming alongside the client in their research process.

This email’s sole purpose is to offer a free resource: a how to guide, a cheat sheet, or a helpful blog post comparing options the client might be considering. Don’t be pushy here—just offer the resource and step back.

Email #3: The Simple Share Email

The last email in the campaign will come 7-14 days after the second and will hit prospects that didn’t interact with the first or second email.

This email assumes that its recipients are very early in the buying process. At this point, your only goal is to get your business name out there and start laying the foundation for a relationship. Since these prospects are not motivated to buy, they’ll be especially sensitive to pushy marketing, so it’s important to keep this email short, generic, and extremely hands-off.

Find something to share that’s: a) short, well written, and legitimately helpful, b) targeted to prospects’ market or most common challenges, and c) NOT written by your business (too pushy for this buying stage).

Campaign Follow-ups

Once you’ve run the three emails, you can use the results to determine where certain leads are in the buying process and respond accordingly.

Anyone who replied to the first email is considered a late stage buyer—these guys are almost ready to make a move and will probably do so with a little push from you. Now is the time to bring in a few more case studies (more in depth than the first) or a special offer, depending on the prospect’s specific response.

Those who interacted with the second email (by clicking the link or replying) need more “middle of the funnel” research-focused content, and anyone who interacted with the last email needs more early stage content (brief, relationship-building check-in emails).

For those who didn’t interact with the campaign at all, let them rest for 30, 60, or 90 days and then try another drip campaign similar to the one above.

See what we mean? Simple.

It’s time to get a handle on who you’re dealing with in your CRM and what they need from you right now. Don’t give up on your dead leads—with a little strategic nurturing, you’d be surprised how many will perk right up.

Just think: if even a fraction of your dead leads came back to life, what kind of impact would that have on your business?

Jay Baron

I lead teams that drive digital innovation and create sophisticated digital lead development initiatives. The end goal is attracting more qualified opportunities from better paying clients.

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